Malcolm Turnbull puts talkative Tony Abbott on notice

Malcolm Turnbull says he'll continue to publicly pull Tony Abbott into line when he sees the need, as the former prime minister further stirred his colleagues on Friday with a speech attacking Labor tax plans in areas the government still has under consideration.

At the end of a volatile week for the government which has Coalition MPs fearing for their electoral prospects, Mr Turnbull said Mr Abbott was wrong to have claimed that the next fleet of submarines would have been delivered earlier had he still been in charge.

Mr Abbott made the claim to journalist Greg Sheridan who had a copy of the draft defence white paper prepared during Mr Abbott's tenure.

Anthony Albanese has compared the government with the film Sharknado.

The claim was immediately refuted by defence chiefs who said the timeline for the subs was exactly the same now as it was under Mr Abbott. Mr Turnbull asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the leak and Mr Abbott was accused of undermining the leader on national security.

On Friday, Mr Turnbull put Mr Abbott on notice.

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"Tony Abbott is entitled to express his views. He is a former prime minister. He has got to form his own judgment about his comments," Mr Turnbull said.

"Tony's right to speak his mind and he should continue to do so, but it's very important that as Prime Minister I set the record straight.

"In terms of what we put in the Defence White Paper, in terms of our estimates of times for completion and operation of new equipment, including submarines, we rely exclusively on the expert advice of the Defence Department and of course the defence forces and their two leaders have made the facts very, very clear."

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also said Mr Abbott was wrong to have criticised Mr Turnbull over national security but rejected suggestions the Liberal Party had become as bad as Labor during the height of the Rudd-Gillard wars.

In a speech in Tasmania for colleague and ally Senator Eric Abetz on Friday, Mr Abbott urged Liberals to unite behind the "Turnbull government" and keep Labor at bay. Mr Abbott then distilled Labor's policy proposals thus far into the slogan of "five new taxes". These were a "housing tax" (negative gearing), a "wealth tax" (capital gains), a "seniors tax" (superannuation), a "workers tax" (tobacco excise increase), and the carbon tax.

The Turnbull government is still actively looking at superannuation tax changes to help fund its income tax cuts. While it is believed to have dumped plans to touch negative gearing, that has not been formally announced. And many backbenchers are urging Mr Morrison adopt Labor's tobacco tax increase.

"He's trying to box us into a corner," said one Liberal MP of Mr Abbott's tax comments. On Tuesday, Mr Abbott told the party room that the government should fund its tax cuts from spending cuts, not tax increases.

This earned him a swift rebuke from colleagues who noted Mr Abbott has introduced more than $20 billion in tax increases to pay for the tax cuts he delivered as prime minister.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the Liberal Party had become like watching the movie Sharknado in which a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, and nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land, and air as thousands of sharks terrorise the waterlogged populace.

Phillip Coorey writes on news specialising in policy, politics and the budget. Based in Canberra, Phil is chief political correspondent. He previously worked for The Advertiser and The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award. Connect with Phillip on Facebook and Twitter. Email Phillip at pcoorey@afr.com.au